page_title: 909th Air Refueling Squadron
section_title: Deployments to the Mediterranean Theater
hierarchical_section_title: 909th Air Refueling Squadron / History / World War II / Deployments to the Mediterranean Theater
caption_attribution_description: English: Air Raid Ploesti! A B-24 flying over a burning oil refinery at Ploesti, Rumania, 1 August 1943.
context_page_description: The 909th Air Refueling Squadron is part of the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, Japan. It operates the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft conducting air refueling missions.
  The squadron was first activated in 1942 as the 19th Reconnaissance Squadron, but was redesignated the 409th Bombardment Squadron shortly after activation. After briefly serving as an antisubmarine unit, it participated in combat in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations, earning two Distinguished Unit Citations for its actions. After the surrender of Germany the squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated.
  The squadron was reactivated shortly after the end of World War II as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress unit, and became one of the first units of Strategic Air Command in 1946. It was inactivated later that year when its parent group was replaced by the 43d Bombardment Group.
  The 909th Air Refueling Squadron was activated in 1963 at Amarillo Air Force Base, Texas. The squadron supported Strategic Air Command operations from activation and, starting in 1964, supported operations in Southeast Asia from Amarillo, March Air Force Base, California and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
context_section_description: In early December, the air echelon of the squadron deployed to Algeria, where it was attached to XII Bomber Command. Operating with inadequate supplies under difficult conditions the squadron struck heavy blows against enemy shipping and lines of communication during its Mediterranean deployment.  Tafaraoui Airfield had no hardened runways, and the first four missions had to be cancelled when heavy rains turned the airfield into a sea of mud, making it impossible to taxi.  After flying one mission, the unit moved to Gambut Main, Libya, where it came under the control of IX Bomber Command.  At Gambut, dust storms "played havoc" with the engines of the squadron's B-24s.  The 409th flew 22 missions, attacking enemy ports and attacking Italian supply centers to support the British Eighth Army. The squadron was awarded its first Distinguished Unit Citation for these efforts.
  The squadron returned to England in February 1943 and until June attacked engine repair facilities, power plants, harbors, and other targets in France, the Low Countries and Germany.  In May the squadron was withdrawn from operations and began to train for night attacks.  However, this training ended abruptly and the squadrons of the 93d group joined those of the only other B-24 group in Eighth Air Force, the 44th Bombardment Group, in flying diversionary missions, while Eighth's Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses attacked primary targets.  On 29 May the squadron was once again taken off operations and began practicing low level flights over England. Norden bombsights were removed from unit B-24s and a modified gunsight, optimized for low level attacks, replaced them. Liberators that had been modified for night operations were sent to another unit and bomb bay tanks were installed in others.
  In June, the air echelon returned to Libya and initially supported Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, flying ten missions. Following this, the unit resumed low level training in Libya.  On 1 August, the squadron participated in Operation Tidal Wave, the low level attack on oil refineries near Ploiești, where 60% of the Axis fuel was produced. This attack involved a round trip of over 2,000 miles. The squadron's formation followed the 376th Bombardment Group which had mistaken the Initial Point for the bomb run and flew the wrong course to the target, bombing targets that had been assigned to other groups, despite heavy opposition from enemy forces that had been fully alerted to the approach of the bombers. For this action, the squadron earned its second Distinguished Unit Citation. Before departing the Mediterranean, the squadron flew an attack against the Messerschmitt Bf 109 factory at Wiener Neustadt, stretching the range of its B-24s and requiring it to recover at bases in Tunisia, which were closer than its station in Libya.
  The squadron returned to England in August, but flew only two missions before the air echelon returned to the Mediterranean to fly missions from Tunisia to support the Fifth Army at Salerno during Operation Avalanche, the invasion of Italy. The crews and aircraft returned to England in October.
caption: B-24 on target in Operation Tidal Wave
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